A hungry hunting lioness caught a baboon with a baby clinging to her side. It seemed like an ordinary day in the savannah, but then something incredible happened...

While the wild can be a brutal place, sometimes animals surprise us all and do some incredibly caring things for one another. In this particular situation, a lioness goes in for the kill…until she sees the an adorable little baby baboon and just can’t bring herself to kill him. It’s quite an unusual predator and prey scenario, and it stunned onlookers. Luckily, someone was around to capture the action. This may not your average Kodak moment, but it’s pretty amazing nonetheless.

A hungry hunting lioness caught a baboon with a baby clinging to her side. It seemed like an ordinary day in the savannah, but then something incredible happened...

Wildlife photographer Evan Schiller and his wife Lisa Holzwarth adore big cats, and are major big cat conservation advocates. Last spring, the two were photographing the landscape in northern Botswana’s Selinda area when a troop of around 30-40 baboons came running through the bush, capturing the attention of some nearby lionesses.

A hungry hunting lioness caught a baboon with a baby clinging to her side. It seemed like an ordinary day in the savannah, but then something incredible happened...

Evan and Lisa were forced to watch as one of the lionesses went in to kill a mother baboon with a baby clinging to her side, but were absolutely amazed at what happened next…and photographed the entire incident, of course.

A little while after the baby was rescued, Evan and Lisa saw him back in his father's arms.

“No matter what,” Lisa told National Geographic. “The young baboon remains an inspiration to me—and a reminder, that life is fragile and no matter how much we fight to control its outcome, all we can do is live in the moment.”